Download or read book Zecca written by Alan M. Stahl and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award in Economics from the Association of American Publishers Within a few months of assuming the position of curator of medieval coins at the American Numismatic Society in 1980, Alan M. Stahl was presented with a plastic bag containing a hoard of 5,000 recently discovered coins, most of which turned out to be from medieval Venice. The course of study of that hoard (and a later one containing more than 14,000 coins) led him to the Venetian archives, where he examined thousands of unpublished manuscripts. To provide an even more accurate account of how the Zecca mint operated in Venice in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, Stahl commissioned scientific analyses of the coins using a variety of modern techniques, uncovering information about their content and how they had been manufactured. The resulting book, Zecca: The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages, is the first to examine the workings of a premodern mint using extensive research in original documents as well as detailed study of the coins themselves. The first of the book's three sections traces the coinage of Venice from its origins in the ninth century as a minor, and unofficial, regional Italian coinage to its position at the dawn of the Renaissance as the dominant currency of Mediterranean trade. The second section, entitled "The Mint in the Life of Medieval Venice," illustrates the mechanisms of the control of bullion and the strategies for mint profit and explores the mint's role in Venetian trade and the emergence of a bureaucratized government. The third section, "Within the Mint," examines the physical operations that transformed raw bullion into coins and identifies the personnel of the mint, situating the holders of each position in the context of their social and professional backgrounds. Illustrated with photos of Venetian coinage from the world's major collections, Zecca also includes a listing of all holders of offices related to the medieval Venetian mint and summaries of all major finds of medieval Venetian coins.

Download or read book The Emergence of Organizations and Markets written by John F. Padgett and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-14 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The social sciences have sophisticated models of choice and equilibrium but little understanding of the emergence of novelty. Where do new alternatives, new organizational forms, and new types of people come from? Combining biochemical insights about the origin of life with innovative and historically oriented social network analyses, John Padgett and Walter Powell develop a theory about the emergence of organizational, market, and biographical novelty from the coevolution of multiple social networks. In the short run, they argue, actors make relations, but in the long run, they argue, actors make actors. Organizational novelty arises from spillover across intertwined networks, which tips reproducing biographical and production flows. This theory is developed through formal deductive modeling and through a wide range of careful and original historical case studies, ranging from early capitalism and state formation, to the transformation of communism, to the emergence of contemporary biotechnology and Silicon Vally. -- from back cover.

Download or read book Creating Cistercian Nuns written by Anne E. Lester and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-22 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Creating Cistercian Nuns, Anne E. Lester addresses a central issue in the history of the medieval church: the role of women in the rise of the religious reform movement of the thirteenth century. Focusing on the county of Champagne in France, Lester reconstructs the history of the women’s religious movement and its institutionalization within the Cistercian order. The common picture of the early Cistercian order is that it was unreceptive to religious women. Male Cistercian leaders often avoided institutional oversight of communities of nuns, preferring instead to cultivate informal relationships of spiritual advice and guidance with religious women. As a result, scholars believed that women who wished to live a life of service and poverty were more likely to join one of the other reforming orders rather than the Cistercians. As Lester shows, however, this picture is deeply flawed. Between 1220 and 1240 the Cistercian order incorporated small independent communities of religious women in unprecedented numbers. Moreover, the order not only accommodated women but also responded to their interpretations of apostolic piety, even as it defined and determined what constituted Cistercian nuns in terms of dress, privileges, and liturgical practice. Lester reconstructs the lived experiences of these women, integrating their ideals and practices into the broader religious and social developments of the thirteenth century—including the crusade movement, penitential piety, the care of lepers, and the reform agenda of the Fourth Lateran Council. The book closes by addressing the reasons for the subsequent decline of Cistercian convents in the fourteenth century. Based on extensive analysis of unpublished archives, Creating Cistercian Nuns will force scholars to revise their understanding of the women’s religious movement as it unfolded during the thirteenth century.

Download or read book Merchant Families Banking and Money in Medieval Lucca written by Thomas W. Blomquist and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a series of studies by Professor Blomquist on the evolution of banking in Lucca from the 12th and 13th centuries. They describe how the leading bankers operated, how they invested, and how they pursued their family interests. In particular, they trace the transformation of money changers, or campsores, into deposit and transfer bankers, who deployed their capital in trading ventures as well as in banking. Moreover, the author shows how Lucchese merchant-bankers expanded their operations from Italy, first to the fairs of Champagne and ultimately to all of Europe's major commercial centres. Special attention is given to the use of the exchange contract, or cambium, as an instrument of credit and of transfer. Problems of coinage and foreign exchange are also treated extensively, including the origins of the Tuscan grossi and the Lucchese gold groat. The collection concludes with a study of the cloth trade and another concerning the first consuls in Lucca.

Download or read book Order and Innovation in the Middle Ages written by William Chester Jordan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 595 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle Ages were for many years generally viewed as a period when faith and order supported a rigid society. By painstaking archival research, historians such as Joseph R. Strayer and the contributors to this volume have gradually replaced this view with a regard for the period as a time of great intellectual diversity. These essays, divided into five groups, probe the themes of order and innovation as they appear in medieval government; finance; trade and urban life; social arrangements; and aspects of the personality and goals of the individual. The contributors focus on England, France, and the Mediterranean from about the eleventh to about the sixteenth century. Contributors: Frederic Kreisler, Charles Radding, Giles Constable, William Bowsky, John Freed, Phillippe Wolff, Thomas Bisson, Richard Kaeuper, John Benton, Archibald Lewis, William Jordan, Rhiman Rotz, Robert Baker, Robert Lopez, Teofilo Ruiz, Raphael DeSoignie, Bennett Hill, Frederic Cheyette, Jan Rogozinski, Bruce McNab, Lester Little, Robert Lerner, Elizabeth Brown, Charles Wood, and Gaines Post. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book Rome Across Time and Space written by Claudia Bolgia and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-07 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the significance of medieval Rome, both as a physical city and an idea with immense cultural capital.

Download or read book Cities Texts and Social Networks 400 1500 written by Caroline Goodson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities, Texts and Social Networks examines the experiences of urban life from late antiquity through the close of the fifteenth century, in regions ranging from late Imperial Rome to Muslim Syria, Iraq and al-Andalus, England, the territories of medieval Francia, Flanders, the Low Countries, Italy and Germany. Together, the volume's contributors move beyond attempts to define 'the city' in purely legal, economic or religious terms. Instead, they focus on modes of organisation, representation and identity formation that shaped the ways urban spaces were called into being, used and perceived. Their interdisciplinary analyses place narrative and archival sources in communication with topography, the built environment and evidence of sensory stimuli in order to capture sights, sounds, physical proximities and power structures. Paying close attention to the delineation of public and private spaces, and secular and sacred precincts, each chapter explores the workings of power and urban discourse and their effects on the making of meaning. The volume as a whole engages theoretical discussions of urban space - its production, consumption, memory and meaning - which too frequently misrepresent the evidence of the Middle Ages. It argues that the construction and use of medieval urban spaces could foster the emergence of medieval 'public spheres' that were fundamental components and by-products of pre-modern urban life. The resulting collection contributes to longstanding debates among historians while tackling fundamental questions regarding medieval society and the ways it is understood today. Many of these questions will resonate with scholars of postcolonial or 'non-Western' cultures whose sources and cities have been similarly marginalized in discussions of urban space and experience. And because these essays reflect a considerable geographical, temporal and methodological scope, they model approaches to the study of urban history that will interest a wide range of readers.

Download or read book The Laws of Late Medieval Italy 1000 1500 written by Mario Ascheri and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Laws of Late Medieval Italy Mario Ascheri examines the features of the Italian legal world and explains why it should be regarded as a foundation for the future European continental system. The deep feuds among the Empire, the Churches unified by Roman papacy and the flourishing cities gave rise to very new legal ideas with the strong cooperation of the universities, beginning with that of Bologna. The teaching of Roman law and of the new papal laws, which quickly spread all over Europe, built up a professional group of lawyers and notaries which shaped the new, 'modern', public institutions, including efficient courts (like the Inquisition). Politically divided, Italy was partly unified by the legal system, so-called (Continental) common law (ius commune), which became a pattern for all of Europe onwards. Early modern Europe had for long time to work with it, and parts of it are still alive as a common cultural heritage behind a new European law system.

Download or read book Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World written by and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-18 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of merchant documents is essential reading for any student of economic developments in the Middle Ages who wishes to go beyond the level of textbook summaries. Different aspects of economic life in the Mediterranean world are delineated in the light of a rich variety of articles and other contemporary writings, drawn from Muslim and Christian sources. From commercial contracts, promissory notes, and judicial acts to working manuals of practical geography and philology, this volume of documents provides an unparalleled portrait of the world of medieval commerce.

Download or read book Trading Conflicts written by Georg Christ and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-01-20 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on Mamluk and Venetian sources, this book offers a thorough analysis of the various conflicts arising around Levant trade. It demonstrates how these conflicts more often than not cut across cultural divides in Late Medieval Mamluk Alexandria.

Download or read book Trade Travel and Exploration in the Middle Ages written by John Block Friedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 1446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade, Travel, and Exploration: An Encyclopedia is a reference book that covers the peoples, places, technologies, and intellectual concepts that contributed to trade, travel and exploration during the Middle Ages, from the years A.D. 525 to 1492.

Download or read book History of the Principal Public Banks written by International Committee for the Study of the History of Banking and Credit and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1964 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1964. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Download or read book The Economy of Renaissance Florence written by Richard A. Goldthwaite and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-03-09 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2010 Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize, the Renaissance Society of America2009 Outstanding Academic Title, ChoiceHonorable Mention, Economics, 2009 PROSE Awards, Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers Richard A. Goldthwaite, a leading economic historian of the Italian Renaissance, has spent his career studying the Florentine economy. In this magisterial work, Goldthwaite brings together a lifetime of research and insight on the subject, clarifying and explaining the complex workings of Florence’s commercial, banking, and artisan sectors. Florence was one of the most industrialized cities in medieval Europe, thanks to its thriving textile industries. The importation of raw materials and the exportation of finished cloth necessitated the creation of commercial and banking practices that extended far beyond Florence’s boundaries. Part I situates Florence within this wider international context and describes the commercial and banking networks through which the city's merchant-bankers operated. Part II focuses on the urban economy of Florence itself, including various industries, merchants, artisans, and investors. It also evaluates the role of government in the economy, the relationship of the urban economy to the region, and the distribution of wealth throughout the society. While political, social, and cultural histories of Florence abound, none focuses solely on the economic history of the city. The Economy of Renaissance Florence offers both a systematic description of the city's major economic activities and a comprehensive overview of its economic development from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance to 1600.

Download or read book Literature of Medieval History 1930 1975 written by Gray Cowan Boyce and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dynamics of Morphological Productivity written by Francesco Gardani and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-05-30 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Dynamics of Morphological Productivity, Francesco Gardani explores the evolution of the productivity of the noun inflectional classes of Latin and Old Italian, covering a span of almost 2,000 years – an absolute novelty for the theory of diachrony and for Latin and Italo-Romance linguistics. By providing an original set of criteria for measuring productivity, based on the investigation of loanword integration, conversions, and class shift, Gardani provides a substantial contribution to the theory of inflection, as well as to the study of the morphological integration of loanwords. The result is a wealth of empirical facts, including data from the contact languages Etruscan, Ancient Greek, Germanic, Arabic, Byzantine Greek, Old French and Provençal, accompanied by brilliant and groundbreaking analyses.

Download or read book Medieval Families written by Carol Neel and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collection reveals how scholars of the 1970s through the 1990s argued the importance of previously unconsidered questions about the shape of medieval familial experience, and how their mutual information and criticism has refined and added to this investigation in the intervening period.

Download or read book The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages 1100 1600 written by Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-07-09 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the dynamic advances in textile technology and changes in the structure of demand that accompanied the rise, in the late Middle Ages, of an Italian industry geared to mass production of cotton fabrics. The Italian manufacture, based on borrowed techniques and imitations of Islamic cloth, was the earliest large-scale cotton industry in western Europe. It thus marked a pivotal stage in the transmission of the knowledge and use of this textile fibre from the Mediterranean basin to northern Europe. The success of the Italians in creating new markets for a wide variety of products that included pure cotton, as well as mixed fabrics combining cotton with linen, hemp, wool and silk, permanently altered the patterns of taste and consumption in European society. Cotton, in various stages of proceeding, was at the heart of a complex network of communications that linked the north Italian towns to the source of raw materials and to international markets for finished goods. In the developing urban economy of northern Italy, cotton played a role comparable in magnitude to that of wool and shared with the latter certain basic features of early capitalistic organization.